In 1973, Santoro became famous for one reason: a photograph of her naked corpse was published in Ms. magazine (link to the photograph can be found here: http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/gerri.jpg). Approximately ten years earlier, Santoro became pregnant while estranged from her abusive husband. Afraid that he would kill her or use the affair as leverage to obtain custody of their two children, Santoro decided to have an abortion. She and her boyfriend, Clyde Dixon, checked into a hotel room with a medical textbook and surgical equipment, but the procedure quickly went awry. Santoro began bleeding uncontrollably, and Dixon fled in a panic. The next morning, a maid found her body crouched on the floor, a towel between her legs soaked in blood.
The picture of Santoro's body collapsed on the floor quickly became a symbol for the pro-choice movement. It stood as a stark reminder that keeping abortion illegal doesn't prevent women from obtaining them -- it just forces them to go through unsafe, illegitimate means to terminate their pregnancies. When abortion was illegal, countless women sought back-alley abortions, visiting seedy surgeons with questionable credentials because they lacked a better option. Women who didn't have the connections to direct them to abortion doctors or who simply didn't have enough money often ended up performing the abortions themselves, using coat hangers, knitting needles, and dangerous chemicals in desperate attempts to end their pregnancies.
The religious right can dispute the number of women who specifically used coat hangers to perform abortions on themselves, but they cannot deny that 5,000 -10,000 women died each year from illegal abortions. This, incidentally, is a conservative estimate that only covers cases in which abortion was officially listed as the cause of death. Considering the number of women who died from infection or had their deaths mislabeled as miscarriage, the actual figure is likely much higher.
Santoro's picture reminds us that Roe vs. Wade was passed not to "kill babies" but to prevent countless young women from suffering a similar fate; if a woman determines to terminate her pregnancy no matter what, the least we can do is try to ensure that she survives. Regardless, I have reservations about using Santoro's image for pro-choice causes. For starters, Santoro never agreed to have her image published, and likely would have refused had she known she would be represented naked, bleeding profusely from her vagina. Furthermore, it reduces a woman with a complex life to a singular act, making it seem as though Santoro's only contribution was in her death. But the biggest reason that the image bothers me is because it validates the images that pro-lifers parade around. Everyone's seen them -- pictures of abortions (some that look suspiciously like miscarriages) that pro-life protesters shove in the faces of unsuspecting passersby. Their chutzpah always bugged me. How dare they try to shock people into agreeing with them!, I thought. They're clearly appealing to emotion, not reason! Of course, it dawned on me that Santoro's image is often used as the pro-choice equivalent.
To be honest, though, Santoro's picture always disturbed me more than any abortion image has. Almost all abortions take place before the embryo/fetus is able to feel pain, and even during late-term abortions, the fetus remains completely oblivious to its fate. Santoro didn't have that luxury. She must have realized she was bleeding out, and when it became obvious that she wasn't going to make it, her boyfriend left her. I can't imagine how terrified she must have been, how frightening it must have been when she realized she was going to die, naked and alone, on the floor of her hotel room. I suppose that's why, despite my reservations over its use, Santoro's image will always strike a chord with me.
